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Smallholder farmers in Jigawa State in the country’s northwest region were particularly hit by the petrol supply crisis that hit the country in February.
Unable to afford exorbitant black-market petrol, many of them were left with two dire options: watch their flowering crops die or cut their losses by selling the wilting crops to herders for cheap.
The fuel supply crisis was caused by the importation of adulterated petrol by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. The NNPC said the methanol-laden fuel was imported from Belgium and blamed fuel vendors for the importation.
The importation of the adulterated fuel led to a scarcity of the product across the country as the government discontinued the distribution of the corrosive supply.
Filling stations across the country were either closed or operating intermittently as supply dropped. The pump price of petrol skyrocketed as demand surpassed supply.
While the impact of the scarcity was felt across all economic sectors, smallholder farmers in rural areas in semi-arid Jigawa who rely on petrol-powered water pumps to irrigate their farmland felt the pinch a lot harder.
Selling crops to herders
Kabiru Maitukunya, who plants rice and other crops thrice, annually, said the last dry season farming was particularly bad for him as he could not afford the exorbitant fuel to power the water pump needed to irrigate his farms.
Mr Maitukunya is among hundreds of farmers who live in Harbo Community in Jahun Local Government Area of Jigawa State, where irrigation farming is common and locals engage in year-round farming.
He told PREMIUM TIMES in February that farmers in the region were so hit by the scarcity and hike in the price of petrol that they had no choice but to sell their wilted crops to herders to graze their animals.
In February, PREMIUM TIMES surveyed several filling stations in the state capital, Dutse, and in Jahun Local Government Area, where the dry season farmers predominantly reside to ascertain how bad the situation was.
As most filling stations were not operational due to the scarcity, the NNPC fuel station in Dutse, which was selling at N160 per litre, was almost inaccessible due to the congestion.
Maruta Petroleum Station, located at Byepass Road In Dutse, had fuel for sale but was selling at N220 per litre. Residents of Jahun said the few stations that had fuel sold between N230 and N260 per litre. The price of petrol in the area stayed within the price range until late in March.
But for the rural farmers who could not wake up early to join the long queue to get fuel, their only chance was to buy at N1500 per litre from black market dealers.
Mr Maitukunya said he could not afford to purchase the exorbitant fuel to power his water pump, He said the choice he was left with was to watch his maize crop die or sell them to herders before they started flowering.
He said he sold the crops on his maize farm for N6,000.00 to herders who grazed their animals on it.
“The crops on my farms are dying due to lack of water, I have to sell it to the cattle herders to feed their cows because that was the only alternative for me at this critical time.
“The Maize plantation I sold to cattle herders at the cost of N6,000 was the same farm I harvested 12 bags of Maize last year from,” he said.
He said he usually plants rice, wheat and maize. He said the government should aid dry season farmers with subsidised fuel and fertilisers.
Umar Sale of Harbo Community plants maize for subsistent reasons. He said if he could not get fuel to power his water pump, he would be forced to sell his wilting crops to herders like some farmers in the community.
“The problem started when the maize started bearing fruit. That is the critical stage, you need to wet the farm twice a week, but with the increment in the price of petrol, I cannot afford to wet the farm twice a week, as you can see the Maize has started drying up,” Mr Sale told our reporter in February.
“I cannot afford the high cost of irrigating my farm. I used to use eight litres of fuel but now the cost of the same amount of fuel has doubled.
“Last year, I harvested six bags of maize but this year, I may have to sell my crop to herders,” he said.
While several of his colleagues had given up hope and sold their crops to herders, Abdullahi Maigwanjo said he would not.
“If you sell to cattle herders, they can only give you a penny equivalent to the price of a bag, I can’t sell it to them, I will wait to the end of the crisis,” he said.
Husseini Tela-Bulka, another farmer in the community, said when the price of fuel was normal, he used to wet the farm twice a week but during the fuel scarcity, he could not wet the farm for over 10 days.
“This is because I struggle to get money before buying the fuel. In some instances, one collects the fuel on credit from the black marketer who has trust in you to ensure that you grow your crops normally,” he said.
I bought crops on farms for N250,000 – Herder
Muhammadu Jahun, who herds cattle in the farming community, told PREMIUM TIMES he spent N250,000 to buy farms of maize and other crops to graze his cattle.
“The farmers cannot maintain their farms. I have bought at least 20 farms to graze my cattle,” he said.
The ordeal of cotton farmers
Yusuf Hassan, the chairperson of the Jigawa Cotton Farmers Association, said the fuel crisis rolled back the initial gains of cotton farmers in the state.
Mr Hassan, who explained that cotton farming was in the pilot stage in the state, said the land was good for farming and cotton yield before the fuel crisis was beyond what many farmers had hoped for. He said the scarcity of fuel stalled the growth of the last planting season.
“Cotton was growing and yielding well before the fuel crisis interrupted. There are about 100 hectares of cotton planted across the state as a pilot stage in irrigation farming.
“In a hectare of land, you can get at least three to four tons of cotton. With hundreds of hectares, we projected a harvest of about 400,000 tons but with the fuel crisis we can hardly get 20,000 tons, this is a great loss,” Mr Hassan said.
Mr Hassan said that if the government provided fuel to the farmers, perhaps, they could salvage their dying crops.
“The government can bring an end to this problem by providing in each of the local government areas where irrigation farming is taking place by reserving at least 11,000 litres of fuel in a week for irrigation farmers.
“We planned to cultivate 2000 hectares of land to grow the cotton, but we restricted that to 100 hectares because we are still at the pilot stage,” Mr Hassan said.
Irrigation prospects in Jigawa
A report by the Jigawa Agriculture and Rural Development Agency (JARDA) said the state government gave out more than N356 million to farmers as loans to procure improved seeds, fertilizer, agrochemicals, and sprayers.
Ibrahim Adam, the head of the Department of Economics and Development Studies, Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, said the economic impact of dry season farming cannot be quantified.
“Notably, for the farmers, it increases their income and enhances their welfare and capacity for new agricultural technologies and commercial farming systems which help in reducing poverty,” Mr Adam said.
He said the farmers during the dry season farming are economically engaged throughout the year, which increases the farmers’ well-being and their economic power in purchasing the basic needs of humans and it significantly reduces the level of poverty.
Mr Adam, an associate professor of economics, said dry season farming ensures the availability of food production throughout the year. It also helps to reduce the prices of staple foods, he said.
More importantly, he said, the dry season farming engages the youth in local communities in stemming the tide of rural-urban migration. He said most of the youth migrated to the urban areas due to a lack of economic activities in the rural areas.
The academician said the dry season farming encourages the youth not to stay in hostile urban areas where there is the likelihood for them to engage in criminality. Farming ensures all-time employment for the locals (Youth) that makes them economically productive.
“The challenges of the energy cost- scarcity of fuel being used by the farmers to wet their farms, increase the cost of production, put together, this has negative consequences on the outcome of dry season farming,” he said.
He also said It brings about low yields and low income for the farmers which led to poverty and lower farmer preparedness for the wet season farming.
Generally, he said, these associated obstacles negatively impacted the economy because they led to food shortages and high prices of foods. They also increased the chances of food insecurity and aggravated the problem of rural-urban migration, he said.
“Nigeria is endowed with agricultural resources, and as a nation, our long-term sustainable competitive advantage is in agriculture. It is always recommended that the government should commit more resources to agriculture to ensure that a larger population is engaged in agricultural activities,” he said.
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